This is a reality we all must often face on our creative journeys. We live in a hyper-connected world. The internet levels the playing field, which increases the competition. You are a few taps away from a painting, song, business idea, film, photo and more that makes your work look like a baked potato. Now, my goal as a writer is not to beat out all the worlds competition. I want to improve my ability to tell a good story as well as get my ideas across clearly that you and others like us can use and find helpful in their lives. But competition is great because it’s a pressure cooker — it puts us in an environment where we have to improve.

When faced with our work not as good as we want it to be, we are left with two choices:

Give up or get better.

Giving up is easy. But has consequences beyond the obvious once you can think of. Mainly, you have to live with the fact that you didn’t try or didn’t give it your all. That’s a powerfully negative mental rock that you have to carry. (Only to be resolved through strengthening your mind and refusing to give up next time.)

Getting better is hard. But if we want to become masters at what we do, we must face the hard things, plateau, try again, fail, try again and keeping fighting for our dreams.

Will we become the best in the world? Possibly. The potential is always there if we are willing to put in the time and work necessary to do the extraordinary. But even if we don’t, we become better versions of ourselves in the process. Even if you only get to the top 10%, 20% of your craft, that’s infinitely better than giving up your dreams, doing nothing, and not even getting a participation trophy.